200.The Kites and the Swans
IN THE OLD days both the kites and the swans could sing. But one day the kites heard the neigh of the horse and were so enchanted with the sound that they tried to imitate it. In trying to neigh, they forgot how to sing.
❖ The desire for imaginary benefits often involves the loss of present blessings.
199.The King’s Son and the Painted Lion
A KING, whose only son was fond of martial exercises, had a dream in which he was warned that his son would be killed by a lion. Afraid the dream should prove true, he built for his son a pleasant palace and adorned its walls for his amusement with all kinds of life-sized animals, among which was the picture of a lion. When the young Prince saw this, his grief at being thus confined burst out afresh, and, standing near the lion, he said:
“You most detestable of animals! through a lying dream of my father’s, which he saw in his sleep, I am shut up on your account in this palace as if I had been a girl: what shall I now do to you?”
With these words he stretched out his hands toward a thorn-tree, meaning to cut a stick from its branches so that he might beat the lion. But one of the tree’s prickles pierced his finger and caused great pain and inflammation, so that the young Prince fell down in a fainting fit. A violent fever suddenly set in, from which he died not many days later.
❖ We had better bear our troubles bravely than try to stupidly escape them.
198.The Kingdom of the Lion
THE BEASTS of the field and forest had a lion as their king. He was neither wrathful, cruel, nor tyrannical, but just and gentle as a king could be. During his reign he made a royal proclamation that all the birds and beasts were to gather before him. When they did, he drew up conditions for a universal league, in which the wolf and the lamb, the panther and the kid, the tiger and the stag, the dog and the hare, should live together in perfect peace and amity.
The hare said, “Oh, how I have longed to see this day, where the weak shall take their place by the side of the strong, and without being punished for it.” And after the hare said this, he ran for his life.
❖ There is a black sheep in every flock .
197.The Kid and Wolf
A KID was perched up on the top of a house, and looking down saw a Wolf passing under him. Immediately he began to revile and attack his enemy. “Murderer and thief,” he cried, “what do you here near honest folks’ houses? How dare you make an appearance where your evil deeds are known?”
Curse away, my young friend,” said the Wolf.
“IT IS EASY TO BE BRAVE FROM A SAFE DISTANCE.”
